I am the Online Community Manager at PLoS-ONE (Public Library of Science). My job is to try to motivate you to comment on the papers there. My scientific specialty is chronobiology (circadian rhythms and photoperiodism), with additional interests in comparative physiology, animal behavior and evolution. You can contact me at: Coturnix@gmail.com
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Dictionary of Circadian Physiology
Basic Terms and Concepts in Math and Science
August 31, 2007
Category: Earth
Naomi Oreskes, the author of the 2004 paper in Science about the scientific consensus on global warming, recently had her work attacked by regressive denialists (including on Senator I-hate-science-Inhofe's blog). Her full response is now available on Stranger Fruit. Go...
Posted by Coturnix at 2:06 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
If you were amazed the other night to find I was not online for a long time, not blogging, not commenting, not responding to e-mail, not on Facebook, now you know where I was - spreading Brotherhood and Unity in...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:30 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Academia
In a commentary and a blog post, the editors of PLoS Medicine ask: ....is there still a reluctance to accept that anything useful can be learned from research without numbers? An old question that tends to generate a lot of...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:59 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Open Science
As you may have heard, the public rollout of SciVee was inadvertent and premature - seen by everyone at the time there were only one or two movies up and not all the capabilities in place yet. It is nice...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:49 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Today is the third annual BlogDay. Pick five blogs and tell your readers why they should check them out. It is nicely undefined, i.e., what constitutes "new", but I guess DailyKos is out of the running. Also, instead of...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:14 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Personal
New pictures, under the fold...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:53 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
We must use time as a tool, not as a crutch. - John Fitzgerald Kennedy...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:47 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 30, 2007
Category: Carnivals
Skeptics' Circle #68 is up on Aardvarchaeology Carnival of Space #18 is up on Out of the Cradle Carnival of the Liberals #46 is up on Truth in Politics...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:37 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: PLoS
The next journal to be launched by the Public Library of Science is PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. To whet your appetite, two papers were published in advance, both on the cause of River Blindness and the evolution of resistance to...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:18 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Geologists and other Earth/planetary science bloggers have gotten together and started The Accretionary Wedge. First edition will be this Sunday night so send your entries. Spread the word on your blogs. Also, think about the logo and make one if...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:46 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
I went to my old blog to see if and what I blogged about during and after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast two years ago. I was astonished at just how much I posted! My blogging style is, like, so...
Posted by Coturnix at 12:17 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
Mystery Of A Third Olfactory System Unlocked: Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have found a "nose within the nose," a unique olfactory system within the noses of mice that is able to "smell" hormones involved in...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:52 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Tangled Bank #87 is up on Balancing Life Four Stone Hearth #22 is up on Hominin Dental Anthropology The 134th Carnival of Education is up on Matthewktabor.com. The latest Carnival of Homeschooling is up on The Common Room....
Posted by Coturnix at 8:42 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
If by the time we are 60 we haven't learned what a knot of paradox and contradiction life is, and how exquisitely the good and bad are mingled in every action we take, and what a compromising hostess Our Lady...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:17 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 29, 2007
Category: Animal Behavior
One cool thing about being a blogging biologist is that one can write every day about sex with a straight face and then blame readers for "having a dirty mind". But sex is so interesting - life would cease to...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:09 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Personal
I mentioned that I met Tanja and Doug on Sunday. They just sent me some pictures from the meeting (under the fold) and you can also see their wildlife pictures here....
Posted by Coturnix at 11:49 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
The BPR3 icon contest just got even richer. It's worth your time and energy!...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:40 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
There are 32 new articles on PLoS ONE this week. Here are some titles that caught my eye - go read, rate, annotate and comment: Why Men Matter: Mating Patterns Drive Evolution of Human Lifespan: Evolutionary theory predicts that...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:32 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
See the entire comic strip here, as this is just the panel most relevant to yesterday's news:...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:19 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
Super Spiders Make Bolder Birds: Recent research has revealed that by feeding spiders to their chicks, birds can manipulate the personality and learning ability of their young. In a report recently published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society...
Posted by Coturnix at 8:52 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
Take time to gather up the past so that you will be able to draw from your experience and invest them in the future. - Jim Rohn...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:18 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
The Molecular Anatomy of Spontaneous Germline Mutations in Human Testes: The frequency of Apert syndrome mutations is 100-1,000 times higher than expected from average mutation rates, and it is due to positive selection in the testis increasing the frequency...
Posted by Coturnix at 12:27 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 28, 2007
Category: Evolution
If we are not there at the moment of birth, how come we can bond with the baby and be good fathers or good adoptive parents? Kate explains. Obligatory Reading of the Day. Update: Related is this new article by...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:48 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Environment
Grist takes a look at all candidates from both parties and evaluates their stands on environmental issues, global warming and energy: How Green Is Your Candidate?...
Posted by Coturnix at 12:55 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Food
Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma got out in paperback today, so if you have not read it yet, now is the time. Also, in his mailing-list letter, Pollan announces that he has "...just completed a new book, a short...
Posted by Coturnix at 12:43 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes. - Dr Who...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:57 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 27, 2007
Category: Science News
Echidna's Sex Life Under Study: A University of Adelaide-led project will study the genetic makeup of one of Australia's most iconic animals, the echidna, to give an unprecedented insight into their sex life and behaviour. World echidna expert Dr...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:09 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Encephalon #30 is up on Neurofuture Gene Genie #14 is up on MicrobiologyBytes Carnival of the Green #92 is up on Greener Magazine...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:01 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Earth
Here is the time-table if you want to watch the eclipse in the Eastern time zone: As you can see, it is very late at night, and much of the good stuff is happening after dawn. Perhaps in other time...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:52 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science Practice
There is a good reason why scientists in general despise MS Excel. It is cumbersome, non-common-sensical, and the stats cannot be trusted. The graphs are ugly. I am sure it took a lot of hard work to design Excel (and...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:06 PM • 26 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Fun
Yesterday I had lunch (and coffee and another coffee - this lasted a while because it was so much fun) with Tanja and her husband Doug. Regulars here probably recognize the commenter who goes by the handle "tanjasova" - that's...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:55 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Brian Russell, the tireless fighter for public wireless in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area, recently wrote two blog posts on the widely read local blog Orange Politics: Chapel Hill WiFi Pilot needs different Hotspots and Where is the WiFi? This received...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:26 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
Mouse Vision Has A Rhythm All Its Own: In the eyes of mammals, visual information is processed on a daily schedule set within the eyes themselves--not one dictated by the brain, according to a new report in the journal Cell....
Posted by Coturnix at 9:08 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
To a surprising extent the war-lords in shining armour, the apostles of the martial virtues, tend not to die fighting when the time comes. History is full of ignominious getaways by the great and famous. - George Orwell...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:07 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 26, 2007
Category: Open Science
When technological or social changes start altering the business landscape in a particular industry, people involved in that business tend to respond in three general ways. The visionaries immediately see where their world is going, jump to the front edge...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:23 PM • 19 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
Viagra Increases Release Of Key Reproductive Hormone, Study Finds: Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison report this month that sildenafil increases the amount of oxytocin released by stimulation of the posterior pituitary gland, a small structure directly underneath the...
Posted by Coturnix at 9:17 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
The modern American tourist now fills his experience with pseudo-events. He has come to expect both more strangeness and more familiarity than the world naturally offers. He has come to believe that he can have a lifetime of adventure in...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:04 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: North Carolina
This morning bright and early, I went to Weaver Street Market (the one in Carrboro, not the one a block away from me), where I met Paul Jones for coffee and a session of people-watching - a Saturday morning tradition....
Posted by Coturnix at 12:32 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 25, 2007
Category: Housekeeping
What You're Doing Is Rather Desperate Traction Lobe It Has Come To My Attention Jennomics Inalienable Rights Prehistoric Pulp...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:01 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Fun
Oobleck and Semen are on Jennifer's mind these days. Obligatory Readings of the Day....
Posted by Coturnix at 9:48 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Radiology Grand Rounds XV are up on Sumer's Radiology Site...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:06 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
Crested Auklet Birds Rub Tick-repelling Perfume On Their Mates During Courtship: Hitting it off with members of the opposite sex takes chemistry. University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher Hector Douglas has found that, for crested auklets, chemistry has both amorous and...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:57 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:57 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 24, 2007
Category: Blogging
New on Seed Scienceblogs: The ScienceBlogs 500,000th Comment Contest PZ Myers explains Now, where are the comments on this blog? Just type! It's easy! New on PLoS - new articles have been published today on: PLoS Genetics PLoS Computational Biology...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:34 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Dave announced that the contest for the icon for denoting posts covering peer-reviewed research is now open. Use your creative skills and/or spread the word....
Posted by Coturnix at 8:45 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: History of Science
James Randerson asks this question, but actually leaving only four slots open as "...If anyone plans not to include Darwin I'm going to have to ask them to step outside." a sentiment with which Peter McGrath agrees. So - your...
Posted by Coturnix at 7:53 AM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
The last time I saw him he was walking down Lover's Lane holding his own hand. - Fred Allen...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:56 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 23, 2007
Category: Science News
Tracking Feline Memories On The Move: When a cat steps over an obstacle with its front legs, how do its hind legs know what to do? A new study in Current Biology reveals that it is the foreleg stepping movement...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:22 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Fun
Yup, a mention in The Inquirer! (see Wikipedia definition if unclear)....
Posted by Coturnix at 4:58 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
Change of Shift, Volume II, Number 5 is up on Nurse Ratched's Place Carnival of Space #17 is up on The Planetary Society Weblog...
Posted by Coturnix at 4:47 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Academia
There are some die-hards in the comment thread of this post on Evolgen who assert that the only thing that makes one an author of something is the act of writing, i.e., using writing materials to commit language to paper....
Posted by Coturnix at 3:44 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
So, this is a perfect time to take another look at her Notes From Ukraine and check out the last several posts from there. I hope the blog will continue as Notes From Durham including the coverage of her science...
Posted by Coturnix at 2:31 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Fun
Matt did it first! And then he told more of us. I like the one Laelaps did. But this is more truthfull:...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:57 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
On September 2nd this year go out somewhere: into your backyard, or the woods, or the bottom of the sea, and turn a rock or two or three. Take pictures of what you find underneath. Perhaps you'll find earthworms, or...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:38 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
Everyone in daily life carries such a heavy, mixed burden on his own conscience that he is reluctant to penalize those who have been caught. - Brooks Atkinson...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:54 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
On Sunday, LATimes published a viciously uninformed piece about blogging by some Skube guy (who appears to be here in NC though I have never heard of him before). The blogosphere, as expected, responded with laughter and dismay. Today, LATimes...
Posted by Coturnix at 1:02 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 22, 2007
Category: Science News
First Finding Of A Metabolite In One Sex Only: Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have discovered a chemical compound in male blue crabs that is not present in females -- the first time in any species...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:28 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Carnivals
I And The Bird #56 is up on Big Spring Birds Carnival of Education, #133 is up on The Red Pencil...
Posted by Coturnix at 10:04 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science News
There are 30 new papers published in PLoS ONE this week. Here are a couple of my picks (under the fold). You know the drill, go read, rate, annotate and comment:...
Posted by Coturnix at 7:05 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: PLoS
Intrigued, but unsure about the whole thing? Would like to add comments, but don't really understand what is acceptable? Read this....
Posted by Coturnix at 4:19 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: PLoS
Do you remember all the buzz about the paper on the not random but not deterministic either behavior in fruitflies? By our blogfriend Bjoern Brembs? Well, you can now watch the behavior of the insect in the movie associated with...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:23 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Everybody go say Hello to the Bleiman Brothers at the most recent addition to the Scienceblogs Empire - Zooillogix. Andrew Bleiman appears to be a Crustacean of some sort, while brother Benny has distinctly mammalian characteristics, but you have to...
Posted by Coturnix at 11:06 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Clock Quotes
A man can be a hero if he is a scientist, or a soldier, or a drug addict, or a disc jockey, or a crummy mediocre politician. A man can be a hero because he suffers and despairs; or because...
Posted by Coturnix at 3:49 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks